Just two and a half years after launching, the philanthropic website GiveMN has surpassed $50 million in charitable donations.

Executive Director Dana Nelson says while hitting the $50 million mark wasn’t a specific goal for GiveMN, “it is a great milestone and represents the enormous generosity of over 150,000 Minnesotans – and others who care about Minnesota – who support thousands of nonprofits through GiveMN.org.”

Since its launch, GiveMN has processed online donations for more than 6,200 Minnesota nonprofits, made by more than 154,000 individuals.

According to Nelson, GiveMN has raised more in its lifetime than Causes, a national site for channeling philanthropy.

Given the fact that we have outpaced at least one national giving platform and have the largest online one-day giving event in the world, Give to the Max Day, we have a good sense that from a national perspective GiveMN is leading the way. In the Network for Good study of online giving, Minnesota was ranked number one in “giving by state” in 2009. I am proud that we are number one in that study because of Give to the Max Day but I am even more proud that we continue to see sustained volume growth long after our first big campaign.

According to Causes website, it has raised $40 million since it launched in 2007.

Nelson says she believes GiveMN’s success is due in part to the fact that it has a local focus.

Moving forward Nelson says she hopes to grow charitable giving in Minnesota, and move more of it online. By the end of the year GiveMN plans to add public K-12 schools to the giving platform.

GiveMN is one of only two statewide year-round giving platforms, the other being in Colorado.